Pearl gasped at the monstrosity before her as it smashed its way through the small opening that Pearl had used only seconds ago. The wall around the opening crumbled and fell all around the creature that had pursued her, kicking up dust in large plumes and shaking loose rocks and stone free to fall from overhead. Pearl leapt a good distance backwards, avoiding the debris.
She crouched down and slinked through the cloud of dust to avoid automatic detection from the beast. She could feel the sweat gather at her brow as she heard gruff panting and the shuffling movement of the creature as it moved around. Slowly, the haze of the dust began to settle as Pearl's eyes began to fully adjust to the red light of the room, making out the image of what looked to be large horns poking out above the haze of dust. She considered drawing her spear, but calculated the risk of drawing the beast's attention was far too high for her liking. She moved cautiously around the beast, its outline becoming more and more clear by the passing seconds. It wasn't as big she had previously thought, but it was still considerably larger than her. When the dust had finally settled, Pearl noticed that the creature resembled something quite close to a bovid that had managed to drag its way out of a tar pit with a dark colored gem jutting out from its upper back. A dark substance dripped off it in large amounts, pooling around its feet.
Pearl's skin crawled as she watched the slick, viscous substance slowly roll of the monster and string down to the dusty floor. She quickly glanced over to where the opening had used to be and saw that it had caved in after the creature had entered the room. She felt the sick feeling of panic slowly well up inside her again. Her eyes darted around the room, trying to find another escape root, but the walls were all solid, with no other exits in visible sight. She was trapped. Her eyes quickly shot back to the bovid monster before her. She was trapped with this thing.
The creature moved slowly around the room, crushing the fallen rocks underneath it as it moved. Its four eyes scanned the room. Pearl held her breath. Though she would've much rather fled, she saw no other choice than to engage the beast in combat. She tried her best to swallow down her nerves. She set her jaw; if she played her cards right, she could possibly sneak up on the beast.
Like a predator stalking her prey, she moved slowly up on the bovid beast from behind.
The monster's large nostrils flared, taking in the scents that filled the room. It picked up Pearl's scent easily. Its head moved toward Pearl's direction.
Pearl's hand rose to her forehead as she slowly summoned forth her spear, doing her best to try to stay as inconspicuous as possible. The bright, light blue object was blatantly obvious in the rather dark, red-lit room.
The creature whipped its head around to the sudden brightness in the room that its eyes caught sight of, locking onto Pearl. With a gruff snort, it let out a guttural cry and charged at Pearl.
Pearl let out a frustrated sigh as fully summoned her spear, "I knew that wouldn't work…"
Though she knew her chance of detection was high, she felt as though it was just her luck at the same time. She dodged the attack.
The creature let a disgruntled noise as it raised a fist and tried to crush Pearl.
Pearl used spear as a means if leverage as she swung around to gracefully dodge again.
The creature fist missed and smashed into the ground, cause a large crater in the floor. The room shook as more dust fell from the ceiling. The creature roared and attempted to grab Pearl with its second set of hands.
Pearl quickly spun her spear before slicing one hand in half and the fingers off the other. The creature reared back, shocked by the attack. She smirked. The creature was slower than her. It didn't matter how strong it was, so long as she kept dodging and striking when the chance allowed.
The detached parts of the beast fell to the ground with a smack and moved compulsively. Pearl was caught off guard by the disgusting display. The fingers and the half of the creature's hand moved spastically for a few seconds before melting into small pools of black liquid. The individual pools moved toward each other until they gathered into one larger mass and swiftly darted toward Pearl.
Appalled and slightly frighten by what had just occurred, Pearl tried to dodge once more, but the small mass of the black substance was much faster than her. It shot off the ground and hit her squarely in the chest.
Pearl was knocked off her feet from the force of the attack and hit the ground with a thud. She felt the black substance on her chest move as it tried to spread itself over a larger surface area of Pearl's body. Pearl instantly snapped her eyes open and looked down the black goo that now stuck to clothes like a stain. She clawed and ripped away at the sticky liquid with one hand, but it merely stuck to her hand and began to move up her arm. With a horrified look on her face, Pearl got to her feet and frantically tried to remove the substance, forgetting about the source of the goo.
The inky, black creature moved to attack Pearl.
Pearl's attention quickly switched back over beast. She sloppily dodged the attack last minute by leaping into the air. She landed on the ground on all fours, spear still in hand. The creature moved toward her, lashing an arm out to reach for her. Pearl reacted by raising her spear and throwing it with all her might at the creature. The monster veered its head to the side, dodging the spear with ease as it flew past its head and bounced off the gem jutting out from its back with a clinking noise.
She tried to rise back up to her feet, but was surprised to find her hand that was covered in the black goo was stuck to the ground. She looked down at her hand and saw that the black goo was now spread out on the ground as well as up her arm in a thinning layer. She yanked and pulled at her arm to remove her hand from the ground, but it was no use.
Pearl looked up quickly and was instantly meet by the sight of the creature's hand as it gripped her entire body, only leaving her upper shoulders, neck, and head free.
The creature lifted her entire body into the air and bought her toward its face.
"No! Unhand me, you monster!" Pearl struggled in the constricting grip of the creature, but the more she struggled, the more she sunk into the creature's grasp. She stopped as she realized her struggling was futile. She looked into the burning red eyes of monster that had captured her. She swore she could see amusement dancing in the eyes of the foul beast as its hot, baited breath blew over her, blowing away strands of hair that had fallen in front of her face from the battle and her struggle.
Pearl began to struggle again, not wanting to let the creature take satisfaction from her defeat. Slowly she was devoured by the black goo it slowly snaked its way up her shoulders and to her neck. The panic she had felt earlier kicked into overdrive now. The goo trailed up and around her gem as she did her best to keep her face above the black tar-like substance. The goo was heavy and burned the wound that hadn't healed completely near her gem. Pearl closed her eyes and tried one last attempt to free herself by any means, but her efforts were fruitless.
"No!" Pearl bellowed as the black substance had consumed her completely.
Sorry for not updating sooner. I've been rather busy. To all my new and old readers, thanks for the support! I'm glad your enjoying my story! I'll try to update again as soon as possible.